Chair of the board of trustees of the National Trust historic reservation. I thank you for coming to the diversity summit. It will be the kickoff of the diversity and inclusion programming that you will see throughout our conference. We are being taped by cspan and we are live streamed. I would also like to recognize the sponsors of this discussion. The National Park service, the Smithsonian Institution and to , all of the smithsonian and park Service Staff here today, welcome and thank you. To our friends and allies in the preservation work, we thank you for coming in for joining us. And a special thank you to those from outside traditional areas of our field, scholars and advocates for community advancement. Especially to our panelists, special guests who i will introduce at greater length later on in the program. We deeply appreciate your input and want to thank you for helping us expand the scope of historic reservation so that it reflects the two root true diversity of our nation and work to save more overlooked places. Let me tell you why this is important. Over the next few days, we will set the stage for the next 50 years of our work. We believe that telling the full american story and becoming a more Inclusive Movement is crucial to our understanding of who we are, and to where we are going. Preservationists recognize the importance of these issues and doing great work to healed stories from our past. But that being said, we understand we have a lot of ground to make up, in terms of saving, and engaging more communities. While as a nation we have celebrated our progress toward our founding democratic ideals, we still have trouble coming to terms with the difficult chapters of our story. However hard to confront these chapters resonate in and informed the struggles of today from gay marriage to Immigration Reform the black lives matter. We cannot understand todays america or the fight for justice and equality that we are undertaking now in the 21st century without a euro thorough understanding of our past. Given the demographic changes we will definitely not understand americas future. Women are a minority a majority now and the population. All of this is all the more reason why we have to tell the stories of all of our citizens and build a Preservation Movement that looks more like america. That is why we are gathered today. To bring people together to talk about how we can engage more americans in saving places that matter to our collective stories. I look forward to that conversation. To get us started on the right path, we will first hear from someone working on these issues for a long time. Parks Services Director robert stanton. He first visited a National Park as a College Student in austin, texas. He got a job as a park ranger in the summer. He didnt just find a park there. He found a calling. In 1966, he took a job with the National Park service. For the next 3537 years he has , dedicated himself to our parks and public land in a variety of positions, rangers, superintendent, associate director, and in 1997 under president clinton he became the 15th director and first africanamerican director of the National Park service. While in office he took an interest in expanding diversity at the park service in terms of staff and services for minority populations. In 2001 he helped launch the africanamerican experience fund, the only Fundraising Organization at the National Parks foundation that preserves africanAmerican History. He provides Consulting Services to the National Resources council of america to help increase conservation. He has served as an executive professor, texas a m, and visiting professor at harvard and yale. He has been Senior Advisor to the interior department and serves on the Advisory Council for historic reservation. In short, he is a park service pioneer. Someone who is committed to the issues we will be discussing today. I am honored to introduce him. [applause] bob thank you very much madam chair for that gracious introduction. Good morning. Let me hasten to thank the leadership of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I bring you greetings on behalf of the chairman of the Advisory Council of Historic Preservation, wayne donaldson. I should add the National Trust for a start preservation by law is a member of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. It is a pleasure and honor to greet you and i hold my warmest greeting to the interns who are with us today in all of our young stewards. None of you are of my age. I know that. I am living on somebodys borrowed time. I am not too bashful to us for ask for additional time. I ask you to applaud the use today because they honor us. [applause] i know that we have an ambitious schedule and i look forward to the interaction later on. I am not sure i will have time to recognize this distinguished panel. I know they will be formally introduced later on but let me with the power of the podium and mic take this prerogative of saluting them. I feel a little bit, as one said, deficient to articulate their wisdom and their knowledge. I looked eagerly to their presentation. I returned to the department interior a second time, having retired twice, to serve with the Obama Administration. Under the leadership of ken salazar. I remember how all of us were proud and president obama issued an executive order designating cesar chavezvi in National Monument in california. Secretary salazar referenced cesar chavez. It was a prayer of cesar chavez that granted courage to serve, for in service there is true life. Ladies and gentlemen, you have accepted the challenge of service. We as a people and a nation are grateful to you individuals in your organization. Thank you for being with us. [applause] as i reflected on your opening comments, i thought about sharing with you some of the progress that had been made with the leadership, the council, various Land Management agencies at the federal level, the state municipality, all of the entities trying to address that challenge of achieving diversity and inclusion in this noble endeavor of Historic Preservation. You will be hearing from them during the course of this conference. What i have decided to do is to speak with you as a friend. There is a memorial on massachusetts avenue that honors the great philosopher writer poet jurong. He would remind us that there be no purpose, absolutely no purpose of friendship other than deepening of the human spirit. I had a college remit that would remind me that a friend is one with whom you can think aloud. You are part of me. I am a part of you. Were friends. I would take these few moments to think aloud. I believe that if we are to continually make progress, for diversity and inclusion, not only in Historic Preservation, heritage conservation, heritage preservation, we need to have a very strong philosophical underpinning. That philosophical underpinning that has served me over 50 years in conservation and preservation work. I would also share with you a few minutes of the Practical Application of the philosophical underpinning. The philosophical underpinning thats with the document continues to serve as well. It became effective, i believe, in 1787. It was not a perfect document, and those who wrote it knew it was not a perfect document because inclusion and diversity was not really a mainstay of the document. The most inclusive pronouns i know. Pronoun, we. But, those who wrote this document new that it was not perfect, but they had the insight and the guts, if you will, to have a provision, article five, that that document could be amended. On last accounting, that document, an attempt to move us towards a more perfect union, had been amended not 10 times, not 15 times, but 27 times. Years 150 fastforward 150 years, think about what occurred 150 years ago. Be will pause as a nation in december to understand the battles that were fought, the blood that was shed. Theing to the enactment of 13th amendment, abolishing slavery. To 19 1896 for we were making progress under the 13th minute, 40 the mimic, and 15th amendment, and as us. Ident lincoln reminded we were hoping we were getting beyond the infliction called slavery, but lo and behold, we were not prepared. Came the Supreme Courts decision, classy versus it is ok to live separately. It is ok as a people of a nation to live separately and presumably under equal circumstances, but there was absolutely nothing equal about it. I lived under that doctrine for 24 years in my home state of texas. While we speak about diversity and inclusion we have to understand that we are trying to overcome a commitment by this nation to keep us divided. So we will not be able to overcome that in a short. In a short period of time. But we will always keep our eye on the goal. We will always keep our eye on we the people of the United States of america in order to form a more perfect union. That is the philosophical underpinning we will always have. I believe strongly in the constitution. We will strike. We to do that. But leslie, the practical aspect. Its that of leadership. What i have experienced is that there are two major principles , if you will, of leadership. One is a conviction that you can succeed. To other is to have courage try to succeed. The courage and conviction have to be deeply embedded. It is humanity and humility. If you look at the decisions, to move from segregation to integration and now to diversity and inclusion, it was the courage of men and women. You, ladies and gentlemen are , heirs to that courage. The expectation is that you will take up that mantle. That you will be ambassadors. You will be those struggling to and equalitysity and inclusion. Keep your eye on the prize. Stay true to the task of including all. So, i will salute you again. In the words of one whose legacy has served me well. Perpetual commitment by the government to preserve and enhance his legacy. I speak of none other than frederick douglass. One of the greatest fighters for human rights and civil rights. Wavescluded, we differ as , but only as one as the sea. Continue my friends to achieve that noble goal. Thank you very much. [applause] ms. Rivera he was moving. I thank you for that inspiration. We are looking at the ways in which we are interrelated. In the way in which permissions overlap. We move toward progress more effectively when we are working together. That was the genesis of bringing together this panel. We will have an hour to talk followed by a brief period of questions and answers. We will try to get to some of those questions now. At 10 30, we reconvene at the world cafe and can integrate those questions into the facilitated program there. Sarahe with us today warble, our director. Campaign, heres to my left. Eleanor smeal, founder of the feminist majority and three term president of the National Organization for women. Former president of japaneseamerican citizens, sarah. Tony president and ceo of the , hispanic heritage foundation. Such heavy hitters all passionately dedicated to advancing the rights of underrepresented americans. Thank you all for being here with us. Leading the discussion will be president and ceo of Historic Preservation, our very own stephanie meeks. Stephanie good morning everybody is great to have you here. I wanted to take a quick look back at the National Trust. This is not a new conversation at the National Trust. Thank you, bob, for your opening remarks. It is not a new conversation. We and our partners around the country have for many years, been thinking and working toward creating a more inclusive Preservation Movement. Years, we have5 had a Diversity Scholars Program and we welcome them to our program this morning. Weve offered training to Diverse Communities in preservation dancing the preservation of narratives that are important to all communities in the country. We advocated for diverse places and their protection. I would like to point out that our National Treasures program almosts diverse places, half of the places we look to work with in the United States. Finally, we have been working to reach out to new communities. We want to convene this panel today because we have been at thisfor 25 years topic, but sometimes feel like we are talking to ourselves and we are hoping to learn from our panel ways we can bridge the gap. And begin a constructive with manyp constituencies beyond the traditional preservation community. That, i wanted to ask each one of our panelists to take a moment to introduce themselves. If you would, with if you would, reflect on a story from history that is important to your organization, or to you personally, from which you draw inspiration. We like to think about place. If there is a place that matters to you, and to your story, we would love to hear about that as well. Eleanor, i would ask that you kick us off. Ms. Smeal i am the president of the feminist majority. I have been active in now. I am still cochair of the advisory board. I was just thinking i just came , from seneca falls at the beginning of the month i was inducted into the womens hall of fame. A bunch of us went to seneca falls. It wasnt the first time. It was the sight of the first womens rights convention. I was struck by the importance of it in the National Womens rights park there. Susan b anthonys home in rochester. How important they are for an inspiration to the next generation. If you go into their homes, you see the conditions that they were working on. Or example, Susan B Anthony didnt have electric lights. Very small quarters. And from these Humble Beginnings they change the world. I am always struck to how little funding there is for womens history. We have to do better. I am so glad you are having this Inclusion Panel because they are half the universe. It has an impact on children, on the next generation but has an , impact on this generation, on all of us. You see, it inspires you. Their ideas inspire you. I congratulate the trust for bought polly marys house. She was one of the founders of the National Organization for women. An africanamerican woman. Her own life story is a miracle. In reality, here she is very Humble Beginnings, but a lawyer, the first africanamerican woman priest. A woman who fought for the rights of all people. For the Lgbt Community long you know, when people didnt dare to speak out, she spoke out. She led. But also, the will knowing this history also know that some of the mythology around our Movement Must be corrected. It can only be corrected if you tell our stories. It is always said that our movement we represent a lot of them, are divided. We are not divided. Press he reason the they would always describe it as a white womans movement. It was never true. We had africanamerican women, latinas, native americans women from all classes participated. But, i think it is part of the mythology because divided, we can be conquered. Telling our stories, it is the story of the United States and the future. I congratulate you for pushing inclusion, but inclusion is more than a word. Diversity, i have trouble with. It is the reality of our lives of our country and the world. I think you got to make sure that everybody is included and represented. Thank you, that was so well said. [applause] we havent bought the poly murray house yet, but were working toward it. We are working toward her story becoming known. Lets go around the circle. Let me say amen to what you said. [laughter] im just a country boy it was born in a place called sandys sandy, utah, just before world war ii. Rememberat time, i relatives coming to our home living for a number of years. I was just a little child. They talked about camp. As a child, camp, it is a fun place to be. I really did not understand what camp meant until many years past. A few years ago, my wife and i were traveling back from assange less from los angeles to Salt Lake City and we decided to take a du jour a detour and visit one of those campsites called topaz. Topaz is in the Western Desert of utah. As you look across the desert, you imagine people actually lived here during a threeyear period of time during world war ii. Of course, as now, a lot of emotion came to my body. And i shed some tears on site. What think this is understanding history, understanding places is too many of us. This spring, i had the opportunity to march on the Edmund Pettus bridge. What an experience. To try too think back kind of feel what happened during that period of time and what it meant to me. Sites we look at history, too many people, they are an intellectual place in younger geography. E in as one goes to experience exactly what happened there, it becomes a very